Note: This is the fifth of six blog posts detailing the developmental needs that will be addressed in the Resonare Boot Camp starting on July 16 and going through August 20, 2020.
As I’ve mentioned in my previous posts, the most important criteria (I believe) for career development is for an individual to know what they want. While this might seem obvious, I have found that a surprising number of job seekers overlook this (and other career professionals don’t always push a client to clarify). After that, it’s about looking for environments where the candidate can feel successful and grow. Everyone needs to know the stories of their own background, understand how they want to be seen, and then tailor them to their intended audience. One of the last things needed is to deliver that message effectively to the intended audience.
Message delivery is something that’s been written about many times from many different points of view. From the career development standpoint (and as someone who has worked with marketing professionals for years), I like to structure it in the following way:
- Stories Choices in Brand: Upon deciding how you would like to be viewed, choose the stories from your background that accentuate the accomplishments that you are most proud of.
- Relate Stories to Your Target: Rework your stories to utilize contexts that are understandable and important to your target audience (a.k.a. your Secret Club). Use words and phrases that are key to them, otherwise known as keywords and #hashtags.
- Identify the People Who You Need to Know You: Who is your audience? What’s important to them? Are you talking about their needs?
- Where Do They Get Their Information?: Are you telling your stories in the place they see? Twitter? Instagram? LinkedIn? Are there any influencers that are in their inner circle that you need to be in good with?
- Are You in the Conversations They Are In?: When your audience is having a conversation, are you contributing? This could be in a LinkedIn group, a twitter hashtag conversation, or maybe an industry specific website. Wherever it is, you should be showing your value and expertise.
I like to say that while you don’t want to barge in on people you want to get to notice you, you should be in places where they trip over you. You want to be so obviously in the places that they are that they can’t help but notice you because you are engaged with the same topics and issues they are.
In this ever-changing business world, there is so much that you have no control over, but you do have your own actions and projects that you can send out into the world, and hopefully make your own ripples in a professional pond (see Quadrant 4 of the Intentional Action Matrix for more on this.)
Come join me in the Career Boot Camp starting July 16, 2020 and our forth session on Thursday, August 13 will be just this. Other posts in this series are: Clarifying Your Needs, 5 Criteria for Identifying Target Organizations, How to Develop a Story, Identifying Your Personal Brand, and Putting It All Together. There’s a limit to 25 participants, so sign up now!
Photo by Cris Tagupa on Unsplash
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